So, I've just got home from a great day at the UK Toy Fair 2013 at Olympia, in London. It was a great day and I got to see all of the summer wave of sets, although not all the figures (more of that later). Once again, no pictures, as they are not allowed. They'd even covered all of the stands so you couldn't see if from the upper gallery either! There were also no free hints on the new minifigures from the outside of the stand, there was more of a focus on building, as you can see from the photo above. Along with Huw from Brickset and Gary Davis (one of the UK Lego Ambassadors), we were treated to around an hour being shown around all of the stand and most of the themes (we passed on Hero Factory and Duplo ;-) ). I tried to voice record what we were told, so I didn't have to take so many badly hand written notes that I couldn't read later.

Anyway, enough with the pre-amble ... on to the NEWS! I'll start with Star Wars, since it's the bed-rock of this site (at least for me). The summer wave seems to mainly focus on Episodes II and III (to coincide with the cinema 3D releases) and there are quite a few re-boots of sets we've already seen. Here's the run down of sets ...

75015 Corporate Alliance Tank Droid ... this is rather similar to the 7748 set from 2009, in terms of the build, but the figure selection this time is different, as we get 3 figures with a Clone Trooper and Battle Droid and a whole new Jango Fett figure. This was on display and it looked brilliant. Price point £19.99.

75016 Homing Spider Droid ... again, similar to 7681 from 2008, although it's somewhat bigger all round and comes with a smaller spider droid. The figures supplied are a Clone Trooper, 2 Super Battle Droids and a new figure, called "Adi Galia" in the dealer catalogue I have, although my voice recording seems to mention a "Stass Allie". Price point £29.99.

750017 Duel On Geonosis (or the prelim title Yoda vs Dooku) ... this is a playset to recreate the fight between Dooku and Yoda from Episode II ... you've got various bits of scenery, including all the stuff that Dooku used to try and squash the Jedi. The Dooku and Yoda figures are both new, with the former being film style (looking like Christopher Lee) and the latter featuring a new sculpt and painting for the head. You also get a new Pilot Droid and a new figure for Poggle The Lesser. This looked like a good little playset. Price point £39.99.

75018 Jeks-14 Stealth Starfighter ... a set which appears to be from the Yoda Chronicles, I believe ... and whilst the ship was on display, none of the minifigures were present. The ship itself is a black & red starfighter, looking a little like a beefy version of the Z95 Headhunter (at least to me). The figures are listed as Jek-14, Separatist Bounty Hunter, Special Forces Clone Trooper and a droid called R4-G0. Price point £59.99.

75019 AT-TE ... this set was right in the corner, so I couldn't get a good look at it, but it looked pretty much the same as 7675 from 2008. The rep we spoke to said that all the re-booted sets have had tweaks and updates, so you never know. It does come with a raft of new figures though, including new versions of Mace Windu, a new minifig entirely called for Coleman Trebor (who is on screen in Ep II for about 30 seconds before dying!), a new Clone Trooper Gunner figure and a couple of standard Battle Droids. Price point £79.99.

75020 Jabba's Sailbarge ... this set was present and quite near the front, so I could have a good look, although some parts looked a little preliminary (the sails, for example). The sailbarge itself is smaller than 6210 from 2006, which is a shame, but the figures are a step up. Jabba is the same as the Jabba's Palace set from last year, but we also get a Max Rebo figure (although this wasn't at the Toy Fair), a new Weequay figure, a new Ree-Yees figure and a new print for Princess Leia in the gold bikini. You'll also get R2 in his drinks server guise. Like the last model, the sides of the Sailbarge open up and in the rear of the ship is the section where you'll find Max Rebo's "piano". Price point £99.99.

75021 Republic Gunship ... looked quite similar to 7676 from 2008, with a few tweaks, most obvious being the pilot canopies being different. Figure-wise, you're getting a new Obi-Wan, a new Anakin, a new Clone Pilot, a new Padme Amidala (complete with battle torn white outfit across the midriff), a new Clone Trooper Officer and 2 Super Battle Droids. Price point £109.99.

75022 Mandalorian Speeder ... a fairly forgettable speeder, if you ask me ... I was too busy looking at the picture of the Darth Maul figure that will come with the set (the figure itself wasn't at the Toy Fair) as it's Darth Maul in his resurrected guise with robotic legs. It looked a bit weird, but time will tell I guess, when pictures come from the other Toy Fairs later. You also get 2 new Mandalorian Super Commandos. Price point £24.99.

75023 Star Wars Advent Calendar ... Another good set of minis and various minifigures, but the stand outs were a Santa Jango Fett. You also get a Young Boba Fett, which hasn't been seen since 7153 in 2002!! Looked good ... I didn't note down the price point of this one, but assume it's the same as 2012, at £24.99.

So there ya go ... the range looked pretty good, especially the figures, as is the way with Lego these days it seems. If you do have any questions, please ask and I will try to answer as best I can, although do remember that I have no pictures to refer to.

I hope Jabba's sail barge isn't really smaller than the last one - especially as it's 33% more expensive (although I know that was 7 years ago). It's a bit of a shame that a large chunk of the cash will go towards the Jabba figure, as it's kind of a waste of money if you already own Jabba's Palace. It's a shame they couldn't make a Jabba with band set for $25, then have Jabbaless Palace and Sail barge sets that you could drop Jabba into. I'm sure that would really reduce the appeal of the big sets though.

Thanks for your report. All I can say is CLONES! New Gunner, Pilot and Officer. LEGO seems to be looking out for the army builders. I find it funny how LEGO is giving us new Phase I Clones as TCW line shifts to Phase II Clones.

Brainslugged wrote:I hope Jabba's sail barge isn't really smaller than the last one - especially as it's 33% more expensive (although I know that was 7 years ago). It's a bit of a shame that a large chunk of the cash will go towards the Jabba figure, as it's kind of a waste of money if you already own Jabba's Palace. It's a shame they couldn't make a Jabba with band set for $25, then have Jabbaless Palace and Sail barge sets that you could drop Jabba into. I'm sure that would really reduce the appeal of the big sets though.

I agree with this. Since I only do classic SW, not much to get excited about. Since the barge set is mostly stuff I have already, I'll probably just get the figures on bricklink.

I should be excited by the big reveal, but with so many sets "quite similar to Set XXXX from 20XX" it's hard for an old stager like me to raise much enthusiasm. So, that'll be the third similar Republic Gunship, then, and the third similar AT-TE, the second similar Tank Droid etc. etc.. And a smaller Sail Barge (boo). I really need to jack in the Star Wars theme and go concentrate on the others, I think - leave LEGO Star Wars to the youngsters (or at least get more interested in minifigures....). It'd be no great loss - God knows we're spoiled for high quality sets at the moment across a variety of themes - what a fantastic time to be an AFOL (or any kind of FOL, actually) !

Brainslugged wrote:I hope Jabba's sail barge isn't really smaller than the last one - especially as it's 33% more expensive (although I know that was 7 years ago).

This is a little tangential, but was the previous Sail Barge, 6210, really only available for three or four months? It would help explain its valuation these days, and it's something I've wondered about since coming back to Lego in 2012.

Maybe the 2013 one will drive the price down. (It probably won't, but one can dream.)

Pretty curious to see what they can change in the new Republic Gunship. My guess is the features from the old one imported to the style of the new one. Sadly, not at the same price point. Depending on the similarities... it may hit the resale value of the 7676 pretty hard.

The figure wasn't there, but since the set is supposed to be from the films, rather the the CW cartoons, I would guess it will be less stylised. That's certainly how they described the new Dooku figure will be (again, all we had was a picture, no actual figure!).

Thanks for the great info! On Jabba's Sail Barge, did you like the design? I know many were critical of it based on the leaked box art, so I am curious to know if you felt it was a decent model, or if the size reduction also meant compromise on the end result.

The figure wasn't there, but since the set is supposed to be from the films, rather the the CW cartoons, I would guess it will be less stylised. That's certainly how they described the new Dooku figure will be (again, all we had was a picture, no actual figure!).

Thanks. I know the figure wasn't there, but I thought since you saw pictures of them, you might have noticed if she has big eyes or not. But yeah, movie style is what I would expect too.